GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture
The Worst First Hole
Ira Fishman:
The thread about Par 3 Openers prompted this thread. Our course may have the worst first hole anywhere. It is only 360 yards. But there is OB right where the land cants hard left to right with the cart path perhaps five feet from the fairway. On the left, there is a line of trees with low hanging branches. Plus there is a pond left of the tee but 30 to 40 feet below the fairway with a 45 degree bank. It gets better: about 30 yards short of the green is a tree that blocks half the green and conveniently or not protects a deep bunker. The green is one of the most difficult on the course because of the extreme left to right slope.
The hole is awful. Pretty hard to beat as a horrible first hole.
Ira
Jeff Schley:
I don't know about worst, but one at a well known course IMO is Walton Heath Old. It is a very long par 3, about 230 from the back to a green with a very busy road on the right which is OB, and someone's backyard left about 20 yards left. Very tough opening hole and listening to the cars whizzing by just makes one think, "don't go right".
It is the only hole on that side of the road and talks to move the clubhouse and the opening hole entirely to the other side have been discussed for a while. I think it is too demanding as a starter and a hole needed to be shoehorned to make 18. If/when the club can get the necessary permissions I think it will be an improvement.
Matthew Rose:
My mind really goes back and forth on the concept of an opening par three. The thread about it was quite interesting.
My initial thought is that I wouldn't want to play a brutal 240 yarder off the bat, but at the same time, pulling a driver or 3-wood would feel more natural than, say, a 6-iron. So now I'm not really sure how I feel.
Sean_A:
I am hard pressed to think of a worse opener than Painswick's. It's so bad the last few times I played the course I parked by the 4th and started there. There are few if any holes I hate more. It takes lay of the land architecture way too far.
Ciao
Tim Martin:
Ardsley CC
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